A sample of my confusion...

[microchip]

I understand what sampling is (recording a sound a playing it back through a MIDI activated device basically).

I understand that a sampler is the equipment that does the sampling or is the equipment that the samples are put into and then plays them back with activation from a MIDI device.

Now I DO NOT understand the discs and software that I see advertised as samples....I work with Cakewalk and that is my ONLY software that I am using. If I buy one of these discs with samples on them, will they work as a plug-in? I guess what I want to know is that if I play a MIDI track into Cakewalk, will these sample discs give me the ability to take these sounds from the disc and make them play on the MIDI track I just recorded? Or do I need a sampler or some other kind of software?

micro

 

[TexRoadkill]

You need a software sampler to playback samples. You can grab samples and just place them into a track. This works for drum sounds and loops.

But if you want to play a string or piano sound with a midi controller you will need either a software or external sampler.

For software playback check out Gigasampler and I'm sure somebody can recomend some others.